Various services are provided to users free of charge in exchange for the user being exposed to advertisements. The business model of GOOGLE™ is one of the most successful examples. GOOGLE™ provides search services while advertisements related to user-provided search terms are displayed in addition to the user's search results.
Similarly, HULU™ provides video services to users free of charge. Prior to, and during the course of a video presentation, HULU™ interrupts the video and displays an advertisement or commercial message to the user.
However, neither GOOGLE™ nor HULU™, nor any other prior art system of which the applicant is aware, requires a user to maintain a certain quantum of cognitive awareness regarding the commercial message. U.S. Pat. No. 7,440,563, owned by Sumo Technologies, LLC—the owner of this instant application, discloses some embodiments of such commercial messaging, termed “guaranteed cognitive awareness.”
The use of guaranteed cognitive awareness programs in commercial messaging provides assurances to advertisers that their commercial message is actually understood by users, rather than ignored. However, the guaranteed cognitive awareness program described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,440,563 fails to provide a platform of learning about specific consumers and providing an individualized advertising campaign targeted at such specific consumer.
Accordingly, it is desirable to utilize a guaranteed cognitive awareness program to implement a sequential, individualized advertising or marketing campaign, wherein advertisements either build on one another, or where demographic data is received from the user in response to the guaranteed cognitive awareness questions and such data is utilized to tailor a specific advertising campaign at a specific user.